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Getting your bearings with GPS

The key to finding these or thousands of other caches is to know how to use a GPS device. A GPS unit will determine your location within 6 to 20 feet. Then you have to use good sense (and any clues revealed at www.geocaching.com) to hit the exact spot.

Using a GPS unit is easy. Because the geocaching website provides the cache’s Longitude and Latitude (the “waypoint”), all you do is enter the coordinates into the device. As you walk along, you use the device to compare your present location to the cache’s coordinates, then make course corrections until you  reach your destination.

By the way, GPS devices do not actually broadcast your location. A GPS unit merely triangulates on data from satellites that use radio frequencies to broadcast their position.

You can have as much fun with a $79 GPS Unit as with a $1000 model. Simply start with a basic model that indicates your present position, and then step up to models with a built-in electronic compass, topographic maps, more memory, etc. (Information of purchasing GPS devices is also at www.geocaching.com.)

Where can I go with geocaching?

The location of a cache is what the adventure is all about, demonstrating the artistry and even daring of the person setting up the cache. Discovery may easy or require long, difficult hiking, orienteering, and special equipment. Caches may be located above and below ground, inside and outside buildings. Skillful placement makes discovery quite challenging even with the accuracy of a GPS.

Usually, a cache stays in the same place. Responsible cache owners check on their caches occasionally. But some caches contain “travel bugs” with instructions to transport anitem between caches to fulfill the bug’s “quest” of traveling from point A to B.

Geocaching is a game that constantly reinvents itself, with growing communities of interested folks and families. Before or during your visit to the Cook Forest area, you may want to connect with the Three Rivers Informal Geocaching Organization (TRI-GO), which calls itself a “(dis)organization of geocaching enthusiasts in southwestern Pennsylvania” (visit them at  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tri-go/)

While more caches will be appearing in Cook Forest, care must be taken that natural areas, such as the Forest Cathedral and Swamp Natural Areas, remain off limits. Caches can not be placed on public lands without prior permission of Cook Forest officials to protect the park’s environment—a vast treasure land of natural (and man-made) wonders awaiting discovery!

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